Faridoon Shahryar's Blog

Friday, September 28, 2012

"Got A Lovely Email From Vidya": Ileana D'cruz

Faridoon Shahryar

How are you?

Illena D'Cruz

I am all right. I am so sorry, its been a mad day

Faridoon Shahryar

Your fans have been literally approaching us because your performance was fantastic and somehow your interview on Bollywood Hungama was appreciated like big time and they wanted more of you and they wanted a full interview with you.

IlleanaD'Cruz

That's so lovely.

Faridoon Shahryar

Congratulations for the, I think wonderful performance in Barfi! I think you definitely held your own. In fact if you remember I had asked you this question, a fan of yours had asked this question that Priyanka and Ranbir, they are having those specially abled characters but are you sure that you will be able to hold yourself. But I think you did perfectly well, you had some wonderful performance over there.

IlleanaD'Cruz

Thank you.

Faridoon Shahryar

What sort of responses have you got?

IlleanaD'Cruz

Well actually I have got quite a few responses, pretty much on the same lines as that and that has been pretty much the biggest compliment for me. For me I think the fact that I have had actors in the industry appreciating my work has been fantastic.

Faridoon Shahryar

Mr. Bachchan tweeted about you yesterday.

IlleanaD'Cruz

Yes I was completely blown away with that and there have been few other actresses who have messaged me as well. They have taken their time out you know to actually to tell me that they really liked my work so its been humbling and I am still in state of disbelief.

Faridoon Shahryar

So who are the actors, who have messaged you and congratulated you on your work?

IlleanaD'Cruz

I got a lovely Email from Vidya.

Faridoon Shahryar

Vidya Balan. Ok.

IlleanaD'Cruz

Yes, which is good because I completely love her work, she's a fabulous actress and I have had a lot more people, even certain directors from the film industry who have messaged, I know it wouldn't be right to mention everybody's name, but its been lovely.

Faridoon Shahryar

You had 3, I think time zones as well, you know a very young age and then once you getting married and the older one as well. Older one the voice was dubbed by yourself or someone else dubbed it for you?

IlleanaD'Cruz

No. It was mine.

Faridoon Shahryar

You know if that has been dubbed by you, that is brilliant because to get that nuance of you know an older performance is wonderful. That was brilliant in fact that the entire nuances, the way you just got hold of it. So tell me about these entire time zones that you just worked on. What were the instructions given by Anurag Basu and how did you deal with it?

IlleanaD'Cruz

I think Anurag was very sort of you know clear about certain things. He didn't want something specific or something that was really forced. He just I guess wanted the entire thing slow down, you know us playing old, all he said was 'don't push it, don't push it and do voice. Don't try and sound old. Slow it down, that's all.' That's what I took from him. He is not the sorts really giving you know any kind of instructions, but very sort of clear, gives you one liners and we go ahead with that.

Faridoon Shahryar

There are many scenes where even you are not having dialogues, but you are still communicating through your face or facial expressions. I will give you one example, when you just go to the Muskaan house and when you guys are just finally coming out and Priyanka's character just says 'Barfi' from her window and you've heard it and for a moment you would want that may be you shouldn't tell Ranbir about it. You know that entire transformation of, the entire what is going through your mind, you know the negative shades which are there in all the human beings and how you just turn positive and the entire thing. I think that was beautifully done, so without saying a word and just communicating and this is your first Hindi film, I am sure that you must have got compliments for those scenes as well, that scene particularly.

IlleanaD'Cruz

Yes, I did, I did. There were a lot of people who really loved that scene. I have had some very unusual sort of comments for that scene. While there were some people who were like you know 'why did you turn, you should have moved on'. But I think that was one of the toughest scenes, because I had certain doubts, I think you know as every sort of heroine so do you want to play a positive shade, and the minute you feel, you didn't realize that as human beings we do have this natural tendency, that we want our own happiness. I came to terms with that later on because Anurag and Me talked about it, and I appreciated the fact that you were doing a film which was so real. He didn't want to make it all candyfloss and you know and all

fantasy-like and it was real. We are all human beings and you know for one point the thought does cross her mind like you know what if I turn around, that's it, I am letting go of this man and I love him and I have left my entire family, my life behind for him, and really want to let go of everything now, and you know I could have easily walked away with him and not worried about it, but the fact that she loves him so much but she wants to see him happy and she knows that he will be happier with her. In a way, you know just the fact that she's got those tears in her eyes everything came so naturally, so every compliment that's been coming my way all the credit goes to Anurag, he's formulated a story that's so beautiful , and created a scene that's so unbelievably magical. You will not help but fall in love with all of them because they are real, they are human and you can relate to them.

Faridoon Shahryar

We met you in the week of your release and the day I think we met you on Tuesday, a day before the press show was supposed to happen and you know there were apprehensions in the minds of lot of people because its not a regular masala entertainer that is coming your way, and it came with a limited number of prints. Did you guys have any apprehensions, did you have any butterflies because you know a film like this, the way it has performed at the box-office is brilliant you know, it will give a breath of fresh air. I was speaking to Anurag Kashyap yesterday and he said that this will open up a lot of avenues for a lot of good films within the industry. But there were apprehensions, you know that how will people react to it.

IlleanaD'Cruz

I can't speak for Ranbir and Priyanka, they have been in the industry a lot longer than I have. I mean I have had my share of the South film industry. For me this was a huge, huge risk because you know like I mentioned in our earlier interview, a lot of people have this sort of notion of how they would like to see a new girl come onscreen, basically a new face. I wouldn't consider myself a new face, because I have been acting for the past 5 years. But I think, you know for a newer audience to see me, rather would have them see me you know in a glamorous avatar, you know with lovely costumes, with a more pleasant kind of and you know fun loving something like that is very real and very normal and very sort of modern.

Faridoon Shahryar

That's how Ranbir Kapoor came to know about you because he googled 'Illeana hot' when he had to just find out about you.

IlleanaD'Cruz

That's just a thing you know, but I guess that's probably the beauty of Anurag, that's why I keep mentioning, why I keep going on about Anurag is that I mean when you see the film you realize it. Its a film that a lot of people have said is magical and that's exactly what I felt when he told me the story, it was magical. You think about the fact that this is such a beautiful film, the bond between the 3 of them, sure she loves him, she's in love with Barfi no doubt at the same time she would do anything to keep him happy and it's not about just self-sacrificing things but its just that she's human and she knows how she feels and how he feels as well and, its just lovely, its got this lovely warm feeling. Coming back to your question, yeah I would have taken the risk but I wanted to be a part of this film no matter what. A lot of people in fact even told me that why are you doing this but I decided I was like you know what I guess let me give it my best and hope that people will see it.